Water Man­age­ment

In a coun­try which lies largely below sea level, water man­age­ment is a key issue. The Dutch have been experts in keep­ing their feet dry ever since they settled in the marshy lands sur­round­ing the Rhine delta, and today many coun­tries and cit­ies around the world call in help from Hol­land whenev­er they face a water-related chal­lenge.

Since the real­iz­a­tion of the Delta Works, a large sys­tem of dams, dykes, locks and storm surge bar­ri­ers in the South­w­est of the coun­try, the seafront is safe. A big­ger chal­lenge than hori­zont­al water is ver­tic­al water: salty ground­wa­ter push­ing through the polders, but mainly the increase in pre­cip­it­a­tion due to the cli­mate change.

The Dutch approach this chal­lenge in an equally innov­at­ive and prag­mat­ic man­ner, with pro­jects includ­ing land reclam­a­tion, water reten­tion squares, under­ground rain­wa­ter stor­age and house boat neigh­bour­hoods.

Our 10-minute video ‘Liv­ing on Water’ tells you more about water man­age­ment in Hol­land, before tak­ing you to four float­ing hous­ing pro­jects in Amsterdam!

The pro­jects presen­ted are part of our tours in IJburg and Buik­sloter­ham.